


Crimson Rose, Silver Snowdrop

by spooky_lilith



Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - Medieval, F/F, Suggestive Themes, Trans Female Character, Vampire!Weiss, Werewolf!Ruby
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-16
Updated: 2020-01-22
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:14:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 17,918
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22273126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spooky_lilith/pseuds/spooky_lilith
Summary: Disinherited from her status as Heiress to the Holy Empire of Atlas, Weiss had felt her fate was sealed. Her father, Jacques Schnee, had decided that an arranged marriage to a lowly werewolf male would have been a suitable enough punishment for the next fifty years of her life. Jacques might not have expected much from the boy meant to punish her through matrimony, but he certainly hadn't expected his daughter to run off with a girl just a day before the wedding.
Relationships: Ruby Rose/Weiss Schnee
Comments: 31
Kudos: 175





	1. Silver Snowdrop I

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: Transphobia Discussions, Unintended Nudity, Parental Abuse.

The Mantillean winter storms are all-consuming, but blitzing through them, they remind Weiss that she’s alive. Perhaps not 'alive' in the traditional sense, but as close to the sensation of 'living' that an undead soul like her could consider herself. She was a vampire, and was considered undead by the Goddesses, damned be the opinions of philosophers, and scholars. Their progress so far, the mileage she and Ruby managed to cover in so short a span of time was well beyond exceeding expectations; Ruby had said herself that she was a speed demon while she was in her lycanthropic form, but not _this_ fast.

The freezing winds scream, lash out at her ears, whipping her skin raw. But Ruby’s form takes the brunt of the force that would surely have sliced through lesser mortals by now. Weiss had no need to regulate her internal temperature, being undead. But that hadn't precluded her physical body's needs; the tips of her fingers were starting to suffer from frostbite. She wonders how much worse it would have been if she hadn't her vampiric resistances on hand to protect her.

“One-hundred and five kilometers.” The familiar equation for speed runs through her head; _distance covered by unit of time_. Weiss had a clock in her mind, tempered, built by decades of waiting for her life to begin in that prison she’d once called a home. 

Three hours, Weiss had spent strapped onto Ruby’s back while she was in werewolf form, blitzing through the Frozen Wastes of Solitas at full speed. She’d heard stories of the physical prowess of the lycanthropes before, but she’d never seen one turned up close. 

She and Ruby still had another thirty minutes until they reached the Forest of the Ice Spirits. The Frozen Wastes that Atlas proper hovered over were exactly their namesake; barren, cold, with nary any trees to cover their escape. Luckily for them, they had a Solitas winter storm to cover their tracks. But the roughshod visibility worked both ways, and Ruby was entirely dependent on Weiss for navigation.

And it was cold. Terribly so. Weiss might have had little need for warmth, but her companion, Ruby, was far from immune. A werewolf's physiology, Ruby's energy needs were incredibly taxing on their supplies, Lycanthropes demanded around three kilos of food per day in human form, and double this whenever they'd turned, as opposed to the one and a half kilos elves demanded. And this didn't include any mention of her werewolf form. Each breath of hers condensing into fog in the air. 

As long as Ruby was kept well fed, her body would produce more than enough natural body heat to keep her alive. Ruby was a damned furnace, and Weiss knew this fact deeply, having been strapped onto her back for hours now. But it wasn't as if she were objecting.

“Amazing.” Her own voice is carried away by the wind. But Ruby’s ears are sensitive, especially when turned; they perk up at the appraisal. “At this rate, we’ll reach the Great Imperial Sea in sixty-some hours, plus rests.”

At the mention of rests, Ruby’s breath hitches, coughing and hacking violently. Her run grinds to a halt, launching her vampiric cargo off her back. Straight into the the snow.

“R-ruby, you dolt!” Weiss says, digging herself out. “Inform me when you’re about to stop!”

But when she recollects her senses, her anger vanishes. Replaced instead, with a dreadful panic. Ruby, having turned back into her humanoid form, had collapsed into the snow, wheezing and hacking out bile, blood, and whatever else was in her lungs.

“Ruby!” She nearly tackles her to the ground, sputtering out apologies, brushing away Ruby's hair, trying to get her to breathe normally.

Ruby eventually manages a few croaked words in between breaths. “Weiss, fuck, I’m sorry-”

“Don't, you absolute dunce.” Weiss says, doing her best to hold back her learned attitude. “You’re going to freeze, so quit apologizing. It was my fault, and I should have checked in on you and I wasn’t-"

The soft embrace of Ruby’s tender lips against her own shuts her up. Weiss's lips are cold, but Ruby's are warm; they play with each other. Ruby's teeth biting her needy lips, sloftly kneading against her. Then she leans back.

“I’m fine you dork.” Ruby laughs, pushing Weiss away and letting herself fall flush against the snow. “I’m a bit out of it, and I just need to rest for an hour or thirty. Is that fine?”

“Of course.” Her eyes study, scanning up and down Ruby’s form one last time. No injuries, and nothing of note, save for the eye candy of her soft features, the curves she'd acquired from those feminine herbs she'd been taking for just weeks now. A wandering gaze follows to the dark grey wolf ears she had, the fluffy and always soothing to the touch wolf tail that hung just above her perfectly curved arse. Ruby was always a delight to gaze at. “Ruby, I’m enjoying the sight, but please put your clothes back on before you freeze.”

Werewolves tore apart the garb they were wearing whenever they turned; a problem when the tunic Weiss had designed for her was a delicate, if simple garb, meant to protect her, keep her warm, and emphasize those curves her body bore. Ruby, remembering this, flushes red and covers her bare sex. Pithy.

* * *

_“You’re Weiss… right?” Her groom laughs, covering ‘his’ chest and trying to hide the absolute mess 'he'd' just made._

_When she’d first learned that her groom was ready for her in ‘his’ dressing room, she hadn't expected much. She knew this entire ceremony was a punishment, all a part of Father's game to discipline her, cow her away from her ethics. So she'd be married to a disgusting male, of a 'lesser race,' for a couple of decades or so, until he died and she was freed. And her name would be utterly trashed for marrying one of Atlas's service races, costing her all of her political capital she'd managed to acquire, locked up in Father's Castle. She'd told herself she didn't care. She'd escape his clutches one way or another, and she'd told herself that if she had nothing to expect, then she'd be able to bear through this humiliation until the werewolf male was dead._

_Well, she certainly hadn’t been expecting to be greeted with the sight of a half-nude Werewolf. Wearing a half-torn dress, ruined apparently, because she hadn’t figured out how to put the damned cloth on._

_“It’s Ruby. Not… the other name.” Her groom says, eyes darting everywhere in particular but at her. “Uh, so I know this doesn’t make sense-”_

_“Is this a joke?” Weiss snaps, Ruby reeling. “Why have you made a mess of my dresser! Why have you ruined one of my prized gowns!? Do you even know how rare the materials are? Furthermore, why are you crossdressing!?”_

_“I…” Ruby stumbles back, knocking over some perfumes with her tail. She was terrified, her silver eyes far from the present. “I don’t know. I just-they-your servants dressed me in the male tunic-and-but-I really hated it-thentheyleftmealone and I saw your really pretty dress and i wanted to try it because I thought itwouldlookpretty on me and I totally forgot about you-_

_Weiss had been expecting this arranged marriage to be miserable. But in all her fears, those hypotheticals she'd come to dread the day she'd been disinherited, she’d been the one crying, her husband the culprit. Not the other way around._

_Ruby shakes, cries, trembles, curls up into an outright huddle in the corner of the room. The soundproofing of her chambers doesn’t reassure her anxiety. The door is shut, locked, sealed with multiple alarms and an arcane lock. Then she addresses Ruby._

_“Why are you crying you dolt!? You’re confusing me! Stop it!” Those were the only words that came to mind. It's all muscle memory, really._

_Ruby manages a few near-incoherent apologies in between sobs. “I’m sorry…”_

_It wasn’t that she was outright befuddled by the sight someone crying, breaking down into incoherence. Emotional meltdowns weren’t a concept foreign to her, far from it. She'd just thought she was the only one in the world who broke down like this, and she didn't know what to do now with Ruby breaking down right in front of her._

_Goddesses, Weiss Schnee had realized that day. That Ruby was a deeply confusing and troubled individual. And that she'd do anything to keep her from crying like that, the way she had ever, ever again._

* * *

The dirt path that cut through the Forest of the Ice Spirits was gnarled, overwhelmed outright by thick, weathered tree roots. The tree cover might have protected them from the winter storms pelting the tundra nearby. But as if to spite some meteorlogical principle, a thick, soup-like fog had descended underneath the canopy, obscuring all vision and rendering Weiss and Ruby's undeniably potent senses completely worthless. It's unsettling, not knowing what lies just ten steps ahead. Experimentally, Weiss tugs on the world, the arcane strings of reality around her, and feels only her partner by her side.

A hypothesis is eventually hatched. Curious and wanting to see it through, Weiss plays with the local weather, bottling up some of the fog herself. The mists which quickly collect in the glass jar, confirming her suspicions.

“What are you doing?” Ruby asks, undeniably curious. She was an outright novice regarding the world of magic, and Weiss hadn't even any confirmation that Ruby was capable of any arcana.

“I was wondering whether this was Fey mist or not." Weiss says, releasing the mist, and stowing the glassware away. "The Forest of the Ice Spirits was one time, a domain of the Fey, that Solitas under the rule of Mantle never found the means, nor the willpower to subjugate. Old Mantillean stories one read; those who ventured in, would never come back out.”

There was an element of truth to it all. There as a reason Weiss had chosen such a gnarled and difficult path to tread, and that was the sheer difficulty of tracking here. Sure, it was easy navigating, as long as one had a compass on hand. But all travelers through this mangled mess of forestry and decay were forced to traverse at exactly the same pace as all else. Old Fey enchantments and wards in their old domain helped to obscure any scrying, teleportation measures Father might have had on hand, and all fauna not native to the Forest would receive an enchantment on entering the domain, ordering them to leave forever. 

Her attendants back home likely would have noticed that the bride and the 'groom' to be weren't exactly present. Weiss had estimated they'd have twelve hours until the search began. Maybe fourteen if Klein managed to mislead the pursuit, but she did not want him to recklessly endanger himself. Father's bloodhounds would be able to track them from hundreds of kilometers away, but she was betting that the effects of lingering Fey magics would render their scent undetectable.

“The Fey?” Ruby asks. For the girl Weiss had fallen for, Ruby was an uneducated sort, being illiterate, and spacing out at the thought of learning. Unless it was with her.

“Creatures from the Feywild, a parallel world to ours." Weiss says, a mirthful, strangely warm smile curling up on her lips. "Sprites, faeries and the like. Their world, the Feywild is arealm where the prana of the world is far more potent, permitting a society deeply dependent on magic to function. Their kind also possesses a deep knowledge, a connection with The Root, the source of True Magic.”

Ruby blankly looks at her, likely having failed to absorb seventy percent of that. But she repeats what likely was the word for Fey in her lycanthropic tongue, and Weiss has to bite her lip to keep herself from squealing when Ruby lapses back into that earthy, yet sultry accent Weiss couldn’t help but find delightful to her ears. “I usually just call them faeries. We used to tell stories of them back in our tribes. And I've never seen one before." Ruby's ears droop at her last point.

"They mostly keep to themselves." Weiss stifles a laugh, granting the werewolf girl a comforting headpat, gently brushing against her sensitive ears. Ruby yips. "And we probably won't see any here. Father's expansion has very well seen to that."

"They're gone?" Ruby asks, voice quivering. "Why?"

“Atlas needed resources.” Weiss answers. "Father needed resources." His name came up in so many answers regarding the problems she had in life. “Lumber exposed to Fey magic for a long enough time can be grinded down to harvest it's magical properties. Extract enchantment dusts into a more weaponizable, mass-produced form. And they can be refined further into a pure, extra-humanoid form of arcane fuel known as Arcana. Father needs the arcana in order to power the massive numbers of animatronics that form the foundation of Atlas's armies.

"So I'm assuming we're not to meet any fey then?" Ruby says, now caught in a melancholic mourning for a race she'd never known. "I’d always wanted to meet one, since I'd first heard about them from the storytellers.”

“Most likely not. Any fey from this land would likely have fled to the other three Feywild domains of Remnant."

The forest canopy might have been a respite from the elements, but even though she couldn't feel it, Weiss knew how terribly cold it was. She could only imagine how hard it must have been for Ruby, whether she was lying about her body heat or not.

A vampire's constitution was near limitless, provided they weren't exposed to sunlight of any sort, they weren't caught in outright rushing water, and they had a steady supply of (preferably humanoid) blood on hand. And although nature had been kind to them, with the the winter storms overhead obscuring all direct sunlight, it wasn't exactly as if she could just buy fresh blood from the markets. Blood extracted for vampiric consumption was an intensely scrutinized industry of Atlas, even given the fact that vampires were a ruling class of the realm. All purchases required a blood test from the purveyor just to even browse the wares, and there was a one week waiting period between purchasing the product and receiving it for consumption.

And this hadn't yet considered Ruby, who needed her sleep. So on the twelfth hour of travel, not including the one-hour break midway through, they'd decided to set up to let Ruby sleep for the night. If her navigational projections were correct, then they'd covered four-hundred kilometers; still well within range of Father's bloodhounds. The _Nichterkennung_ (nondetection) wards she was keeping on her would protect them from any scrying measures, but Father’s network of information-gatherers would close in on them sooner or later if they even so much as approached a settlement. And the flying craft Father’s engineers had constructed for him would be able to spot them if they were caught defenseless in any open fields.

Rations would be a problem as well. Ruby's metabolism would burn through them fast if she didn’t keep warm, and there was no game to hunt, barely any scrub to forage. Weiss had about a month's worth of blood on her; more than enough to escape Atlas if things went well enough, but Ruby could only be fed for about a week at most, if she burnt too much energy. So they'd likely have to sneak into a settlement sooner or later, and Weiss dreaded the thought of that. No part thanks to Ruby's inability to act nonchalant in the slightest, and the fact that anyone of high standing in Atlessian society would likely detect Weiss's aura on sight.

In the midst of a makeshift clearing set up a good distance from the trail, a campfire burns, orange light glowing against the dark. For now, Weiss could relax. Ruby had told her already twice that she worried about these things too much; honestly, she thought it was the other way around. But here, alone with Ruby, she's beginning to see her point. With the flames casting Ruby’s little blanketed form in gentle light, her chest rising and falling with each breath. 

“Weiss?” Ruby stirs from her nap. “You aren’t cold?”

The campfire smells of pine, industrial chemicals, and cheap oil paint. It burns brightly; the embers warming her frostbitten fingers. They’d toyed with using a sled pulled to Ruby’s form as a method of transport. Ruby strapping Weiss onto her back turned out to be a far simpler method to organize every time she'd turn, so the sled had been converted into firewood.

  
  
Weiss doesn't bother to look over. “I’m a vampire.”

Ruby sighs, shifting from her comfort. “Alright, let me try it again. Do you _feel_ cold?”

Weiss leans down, touching Ruby’s shoulder. “It’s strange.” Weiss knew her fingers were as cold as the frigid air around, maybe colder. Ruby was warm, in ways that made her warmer than the fire. A pale, bony finger hovers over a pulsing artery, twice the size of that of an elven. It's lycanthropic pulse felt stronger, meatier. The muscle that was Ruby's heart was twice the strength of an elf's. The blood that flows through Ruby's veins is darker, almost black, and she wonders what a Ruby's blood would taste like.

She'd had tastes before, during their... rougher trysts. She'd caught the taste of game, like the blood of a shifter. It smelt muskier than the blood of a freshly bled dwarf. Like the other werewolves who'd offered her blood, Ruby's was savory, but she'd caught a hint of spice that hadn't been present in the blood of a typical lycanthrope. 

She wants to taste her again, and she has to force her eyes off of the artery off Ruby's neck.

“Strange as in?”

“I’m not sure how to describe it.” Weiss steps over towards their provisions, browsing around for their rations. For Weiss; a coagulated blood cube, likely dwarven. “I'd say... it feels cold, but different.”

“Different how?”

One hand returns to Ruby’s bare shoulder. The other conjures a single cube of ice. “It’s been so long since I was was turned. Vampires don't have to feel temperature Ruby. And I can barely remember how the cold felt then.”

“Does that mean you don't understand what hot and cold are like?” Ruby says, misty breaths escaping her lips with each word. 

"Somewhat? Imagine someone who could tell you all the details about temperature, how hot it was, how cold it was right now. Not imagine that same person, but they're unable to feel anything regarding hot and cold. I suppose that's what it feels like."

While Ruby digests what she'd just mused on, Weiss claims a mischievous thought for herself and the ice cube at hand. Stifling down an incriminatory giggle, she stuffs the block down Ruby’s garb, while Ruby's distracted. “Compare the two?”

“Weiss!” Ruby squeals, pushing Weiss away. “Ugh, you butt!” The little dance and the way Ruby waggles her body around, trying to shake the ice out of her clothes captivates her. Ruby might not have thought much about her appearance, but with her curves and the way her arse moved around was more than enough to throw Weiss's mind in the gutter.

An innocent cough escapes Weiss's lips. “They both felt the same to me, my hand, and the snow. Tell me, what was so different between the two?”

Having collected the ice cube out of her clothes, Ruby chucks it back at Weiss, who's trying not to smile outright out of mirth. 

Ruby huffs, but seemingly makes peace with it when she lies back down on her tarp. “One was cold and shoved down my back,” Ruby glares, “and one… was from you.”

Weiss finally bites down her blood cube; tangy, powdery when chewed. Dissolving into blood when wetted. Needed some marinade to add to the mix; at the very least some spices after the blood was solidified. Perhaps cloves.

“I’d hope you’d be able to tell apart my touch from ice.”

Ruby rolls her eyes. “No, no. Like, if another vampire put their hand on me, I’d be able to tell their hand from yours. Even if you both had really similar hands, you get what I’m saying?”

“I think so, yes.” Weiss clears her throat, trying to distract herself from the warmth in her cheeks. “Is it a matter of aura? Semblance? Of-”

“No, no.” Ruby shakes her head. “Like, you’re my friend Weiss. Wouldn’t you be able to tell it was me if I ran up to you from behind and hugged you?” 

Weiss steps back, shaking her head when she sees the mirthful grin form. “Oh, no, you are not-”

“Like this!?” Ruby jump-tackles her before she can run off, sending the two toppling outright to the dirt.

“Ruby, you get off of me this instant!” Weiss says, without vitriol. Ruby’s hold on her was tight. Struggling was futile, and her hands were starting to wander right underneath Ruby's tunic.

“Well Weiss? Can you tell the difference?” Ruby's lips hover just above Weiss's; each breath of hers misty, warm, almost delectable.

“You’re warm.” Weiss puffs, Ruby's body arcing at every inch of skin crossed.

“And?”

“And… all snuggly and stuff.”

A brief kiss pecks her lips. She's so goddess-forsakenly warm. “How does it feel?” 

The words to describe how she feels don't come to mind. Her eyes dart around, to the white skies above, the forestry around them, the dirt underneath them, nothing. Not a single idea, until her jet-black eyes meet Ruby’s. 

“Hollow.” She remembers, whispering.

Ruby's eyebrows raise. “Hollow?”

“The cold feels hollow.” Weiss admits, blushing furiously. “Like a distant memory... from so long ago." Her voice is so soft. "It ebbs and flows. Sometimes out of consciousness.”

They search each other’s faces. Ruby’s touch intoxicating, gentle. Drawing her closer. Loving.

“And what do vampires feel like when they’re warm?” Ruby asks, wandering fingers slipping underneath Weiss’s tunic. Gods help them now if Father’s men were to stumble upon them.

That question, she already knows the answer too. “Alive.” 

* * *

_Castle Schnee was to be vacated for two entire weeks until their wedding, to leave the two in private. Left behind was a skeleton crew for maintenance, and the small army of her father’s guards holding her captive in her own home. Each had been given strict orders not to watch their trysts, but also check in occasionally to make sure Weiss would not try to run off and escape Atlas._

_The idea of having a spouse, a partner, a… lover was entirely foreign to Weiss, crest-bearer of the House of Schnee. She’d known it would be her unenviable fate once she’d learned of the conception of Whitley Schnee, but she’d never allowed herself the opportunity to be entirely comfortable with the idea._

_That her ‘groom’ was to be… Ruby, did not settle this unease even further. At first. But the more she read about who Ruby was, the problems afflicted upon her, and her condition, the more she felt... empathetic, regarding Ruby's plight. People of Ruby's kind, her status having many names across Remnant, often felt trapped in their bodies, isolated from the very social systems meant to support them. At the very least, she could relate to this, and Ruby as well, given what Ruby had told her their first... meeting._

_That day had ended with farce, Ruby sobbing into her arms for the remainder of the night, about how she was a ‘foreigner’ to her Clan, how she’d never made friends during her time there. Her torrent of emotions ebbed and flowed, sometimes squeaking out agonized tears, sometimes breaking into outright waterworks. Weiss was familiar with how episodes of tearfulness usually worked, having experienced them many times herself before. But as the fire of Ruby’s emotions settled and calmed, Weiss’s embrace only grew tighter and tighter. Eventually, Weiss, despite her physiology not demanding it, had found herself lured to sleep alongside her, when she'd cried herself to sleep. When she came to an hour later though, she'd found Ruby was missing._

_She'd been outright nervous for today, ever since she'd sent out the invitation. To be quite honest, even the fact tat Ruby had bothered to show up at all was astounding; a testament to either her kindness, or her inability to recognize a terrible situation. When walking over to receive her, Weiss had frozen with guilt the second she'd caught a glimpse of Ruby. Standing right outside the Castle Gardens, she was wearing something outright revolting; a traditional Lycan tunic that werewolf men would wear when courting races considered to be more 'civilized', in accordance to Atlessian hierarchy. It looked terrible on her._

_“Ruby?” She whispers, as she tepidly approaches her. Ruby looks stiff, outright chafing, almost like a statue in those clothes. She'd make the comparison to an outright zombie, but given Weiss herself was a vampire, such a comment wouldn't make much sense._

_Her voice catches, Ruby's ears perk up, and she turns to face her, almost a hallway away. Given a Lycan’s excellent hearing range, it was easy to surmise that Ruby had been lost in thought. “Weiss! I’m so sorry-!”_

_She yips when Weiss dashes over, taking her by the arm, ushering her into the manor and back into her dressing room, which she'd prepared for the occasion. With the five deadbolts, three springbolt locks, and the one twice-fortified arcane lock, she seals the doors, ensuring there won't be an intrusion. Three motes of light are cast into their holders, providing enough visibility for the darkvision-deprived Ruby to actually see._

_“Weiss, what’s going on?” Ruby asks. Weiss doesn’t bother answering, pulling out from the closet the outfit she’d ordered, just for today._

_“Your clothes.” Weiss says, glancing back to scan Ruby’s criminal outfit. “They’re revolting. Do you really think you will wed me wearing that?”_

_“I’m sorry. They didn’t give me anything else to wear, and I don't have any possessions save for my usual rags-.”_

_“Surely your clan can’t be that impoverished!” She turns to face Ruby, scanning the features of hers that weren’t ruined from that disgusting garb she’d been forced into. Namely her face; soft, silvered eyes, short black hair with the tips dyed red. "At the very least, you must have some sense regarding how to properly dress yourselves."_ _She motions for Ruby to hold out her hands, and plops in them the outfit she’d personally designed and ordered to be weaved. “Here. Take those disgusting garbs off your person and put this on. Please, before I demand you strip yourself.”_

_She turns on her heel to give Ruby her privacy, busying herself with makeup and jewelry, trying to figure out which color palate would fit Ruby’s skin tone and fur. Her fur. Her hair, why hadn’t she accounted for that? She’d need to teach Ruby how to shave those arms of hers, along with her legs if she didn’t do so already, and could werewolf ears be pierced-_

_“Uh Weiss? Do you know how to put this on?” Ruby asks, Weiss quickly setting aside her thoughts._

_She was holding out the black lace corset her servants had bragged was ‘catching on like wildfire’ in proper Atlessian higher society. But she hadn’t sported the curves to make the piece work, no matter what color. So it’d been left in her dresser to collect dust, until now._

_“Oh. Yes. I can help you. With that. Yes.” Weiss struggles to catch a breath her kind didn’t need. The red-black dress she’d put on did wonders for Ruby that went far beyond simply ‘suiting’ her. Which was obvious of course, since Weiss had designed it herself. But that hadn’t answered the question of why Weiss’s breath hitched when she’d seen her with the outfit on._

_Fingers, usually deft with their work, fumble around the unfamiliar motion of lacing Ruby’s corset on. Ruby’s body is tense; she smells of sweat, pine, and bitter canis root. She would need to apply onto her a perfume before she did her makeup. Preferably something floral._

_“Ruby. Is there something wrong?” Weiss asks, as she finishes up the first half of the lace._

_Ruby feels so light each time she grazes her skin, each touch drawing out a subtle gasp from the lycanthropic girl. Each time her back arches at the touch, her movements are dainty and soft, unlike how she'd carried herself wearing that disgusting masculine tunic from before. The fifth time Ruby nearly jump at the touch, Weiss realizes she's actually starting to tremble._

_“Why are you doing this for me?” Ruby says, her voice a near whisper._

_It was only inevitable and reasonable that Ruby would ask that, in spite of Weiss’s attempts to avoid the matter. She'd anticipated something like this, but hadn't really found any ways to come out prepared for it other than just speaking what came to mind._

_“Because it makes sense.” She says, a minute after._

_“Makes sense?” Ruby turns around; Weiss’s heart skips when she sees her work. Ruby might have looked unsure in the outfit Weiss had up and designed for her, but Weiss was sure of it. With a more mirthful smile, some proper makeup, some curves in the right places, and maybe a proper aesthetic for her to lean into, Ruby would be absolutely gorgeous._

_“I know," Weiss tries, shutting her eyes to think properly, humbly, "that I can be a very difficult person. So I tried to see things from your perspective. I scoured my family’s library for answers. This involved thumbing through religious texts, philosophical texts, everything I could find that could make sense of the situation.”_

_“There are writings?” Ruby asks, her cute little wolf ears perking up._

_“Yes. A great diversity of work on the subject of what the clergy has deemed ‘gender.' Like so many words, there isn't an agreed upon definition for the term, but the most universal consensus I could come up with, was gender being the expression of the will of the goddesses toward the world.” She spins Ruby around for the back of her hair, and goes to work with a massibve comb at hand, tugging at the unkempt knots with a brush._

_“What do they say?” Ruby asks. Weiss’s fingers feel the heat build up in her body._

_“Do you ever brush your hair?” Weiss says, distracted and amazed at how many tangles there were. Ruby had been given beautiful hair, but she didn't know how-_

_She shakes her head. No, she'd never learned. She'd never learned how to take care of it._

_“Occasionally. Once every week?” Ruby shrugs._

_"With what?" Weiss asks._

_"...Water?"_

_Weiss rolls her eyes. “If you brush your hair daily and apply oils to your beautiful hair, then you wouldn’t ever have to deal with this mess.” Weiss says, tugging at another stubborn knot._

_“Yow! Weiss!” Ruby tears up._

_“Case in point.” Weiss huffs. “Anyway. Regarding you, I have no qualms regarding you presenting yourself-" She shakes her head, racking her brain to remember the right vocabulary. "No, being yourself, your true self in a feminine form. There have been a great many philosophies and theories regarding what we term as femininity and masculinity throughout history, and until recently, none of them would object to your circumstances. And I most certainly do not either.”_

_She continues giving her pre-memorized spiel regarding her and the wealth of research she’d conducted over their brief period of separation, not bothering to notice the wetness forming in Ruby’s eyes until she’d finished._

_“Ah, what did I say?” Weiss asks, terrified she'd inadvertently hurt Ruby. “Did I say anything wrong?”_

_Ruby shakes her head no, trying to manage a smile and failing. “No… It’s just, I’ve tried talking about this with the clan leaders before and they just tried to put me in more men’s work. And I never had friends back in the tribe because all the men made fun of me and all the women thought I was unbecoming of my body. So-”_

_Two arms grab Ruby's shoulders. “Ruby, I have read hundreds of pages of boring theological philosophy regarding the expression of femininity in the past few days, so I know I am qualified when I say this. They are absolute fools, and you would be a bigger fool to ever believe them.”_

_Alone, with only the two of them to keep each other with company, Ruby leans into her shoulder and sobs. This time, Weiss had decided to wear a gown with a detachable sleeve, having expected this. Weiss had never been good with emotions, but she felt some empathy she'd never felt before, not even for herself, regarding Ruby. She was crying the tears of someone who’d been wounded. Deeply so, enough to leave scarring, and upon seeking help, care, anyone who would at the very least be there for her, instead received a second knife twisted in her heart._

_Time passes as they hold each other in the dark, the cast motes of light dying out. Ruby’s breathing eventually steadies, and it feels like an accomplishment that she's managed this. Like a burden had been lifted from her shoulders._

_A girl like Ruby didn't deserve to cry. Weiss knows that she never wants Ruby to cry like this. Not ever. Not again._

_“Thank you.”_

_Weiss smiles, relieved she's made things better for once in her life. She handles Ruby gently, rubbing tight circles into Ruby’s now bared back. Her fingers may be cold, but Ruby's body is warm, and it's strange. She knows what warmth and heat feels like as a Vampire, but warmth from Ruby feels different. Tighter somehow. "I’m just happy I hadn’t made things worse.”_

_Ruby blows her nose from an offered handkerchief, ruining the poor rag as she shakes her head. “Far from it. For the first time in forever, I feel like I actually have hope.”_

_Weiss tilts her head at her. “Hope?”_

_Ruby stammers, scratching the back of her head, her eyes darting away. “I don’t know. I mean, I know I’m not very feminine like you, and-”_

_“Ruby you absolute dolt.” Weiss says, holding a hand over Ruby's mouth to quiet her. “Do you really doubt my leadership that much?"_

_"No?" Ruby says, muffled._

_"Excellent. I'll have you know that these next few hours will involve instructing you on how to use makeup, figuring out what garments suit your aesthetic, and some proper perfume befitting your scent. And most important of all, implementing the final results of my research.”_

_“Your… research?” Ruby's ears perk up, her tail nearly knocking off a bottle of perfume on the table behind her._

_Weiss catches the glass container, setting it aside as she opens a cabinet drawer. Contained in it, was a small collection of rare herbs and alchemical ingredients grinded up to produce the most feminine of remedies. “Yes. There have been a great deal of ancient recipes and prescriptions for medications meant to induce femininity." Essence of Raspberry Leaf. Grinded up Sapphic Root. Three Clipped & Sauteed Wings from Queen Butterflies. Fortified Vanilla Bean. And so much more. "I have cross-referenced the results and accounts of every single one I could find in my readings, and have determined what the best mix of herbal remedies and supplements to induce feminine physiological changes in you. Now, I know it sounds very intimidating, but-” _

_Two arms immediately pull her in for a bone-crushing hug; Weiss briefly considers expending her energy changing to mist form to escape Ruby’s suffocating embrace. “Oh thank you-thank you-thank you-thankyou!”_

_“Ruby! Put me down this instant!”_


	2. Silver Snowdrop II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CW: Some violence, nudity, implied sex, brief explicit sex (before fading to black,) discussions of gender dysphoria, infertility.

The farther they push into the forest, the more the unyielding despair it holds becomes apparent. She'd known that Father's wars weren't pretty, but to call this land still a forest would be a misnomer. It was quiet, terribly quiet to the point where it felt as if it were slowly creeping into her soul. When she extends her aura to feel the living world around her, the trees that call this land home are all marked with pain, scarred by war. This was no longer a forest; this was a mass graveyard, each tree serving as a tombstone to the world, the lives once lived here.

“It’s so quiet.” Ruby says, the crook of her elbow latched onto her's in a sort of lock. She couldn't imagine what it was like for a creature of the domain of the living to be seeing all of this.

"I shouldn't have let you see this. I knew Father's armies had been here, I just hadn't-"

"Weiss. Please. Look at me?" She tugs onto her hold, halting their pace. 

Weiss's eyes dart around, not wanting to meet her eyes, though she acquiesces, given that would likely disappoint Ruby even further. 

"You don't have to treat me like I'm all fragile Weiss. I'm a big girl now. Thanks to you."

"I'm not." Weiss yanks her arm from Ruby's grip, wanting to press forward. "I just... look at this place Ruby. Everything here's gone, slaughtered on Father's orders, while I was permitted to live a life of luxury inside the home he'd built."

"Weiss, you might have been rich, but you were still his prisoner."

"And I didn't do anything to fix it!" She slams a fist against a nearby tree, leaving a meaty fist-sized indentation in the bark. Her vampiric resistances protect her skin from any sort of splintering. "Nothing about how Father treated me excuses the little I did to help those who lived under me. And I won't accept any excuses for it. Not while I'm still a damned Schnee, Ruby!"

When Ruby flinches at the mention of her name, Weiss steps back, hands clasped together, thumbs twiddling in embarrassment. 

"That's not what I'm trying to say Weiss." Ruby's maintaining some distance from her, and it's enough for her heart to sink. She just wants to hold hands again. "I just want you to let me be alongside you whenever you try to fix things. Alright?"

She nods, just wanting this conversation to end, half-present. "Alright." It nearly comes out as a whisper.

"And try not to think of yourself as a Schnee? Really, I prefer you as a Weiss, I'd really rather not want to be with a Schnee, if that's possible." Ruby laughs, weakly.

As much as she wants to make Ruby happy and entertain her terrible attempt at humor, she can't lie to herself. "I don't know if I can do that."

The air around them grows cold again.

When they travel at night, Ruby is forced to latch onto Weiss for guidance, given her darkvision and Ruby's lacking of such an implement. Ruby's eyes were optimized well to see in darkness compared to other darkvision-lacking races of Remnant (she could also detect various heat gradients through sight alone apparently), but at a certain point crossed, even Ruby couldn't tell where in the stars they were going.

Each step taken further into the thicket, her _Aura,_ her ability to detect any instances of foreign life and magics, wavers. As if exhausted. 

She nearly trips on a stray root, nearly sending Ruby stumbling down with her.

"Weiss? You okay?"

She'd like to be Ruby's fearless guide here, but darkvision only went so far. She saw in shades of grey, and being in the midst of an uninhabited forest, attempting to hike through an overgrown trail, she couldn't lie to herself. She was pretty scared of the dark.

Something distinctly not Ruby whispers at the back of her ear, _'Back. Leave.'_

She clasps onto Ruby's hand tighter. "No."

They decide to burn some of their precious oil for a lantern, and press onward. Eventually, her senses catches an odor other than overgrown bramble and lamp oil. The scent sticks in their noses, a faint smell of dried blood, spilt on top of a bed of wilted winter snowdrops. She scans around with her darkvision, but she doesn't catch anything around them.

“Do you feel it too?” Weiss asks.

Ruby nods. “It feels like I’m stepping on flowers who are telling me to fuck off.”

Minutes later, the path gives way to a clearing; the trees forming the perimeter decorated with arrows and trauma from a skirmish perhaps. At the back end of the clearing, is the rotted remains of a wagon, molding slowly into the tree bark it rests on. Spilling out from the wagon is a collection of chests and weapons, perhaps supplies, left untended to and rusted for quite some time now.

Then her eyes catch one final detail.

A string, forming an ankle-high chord connecting two points on the curve of the clearing.

“Weiss.” Ruby holds her back, stepping forward and kneeling down just a foot away from the wagon. “Booby trapped.”

Thank the goddesses werewolves and her kind were blessed with an inhuman perception. This did have some drawbacks however; it was easy to overestimate one's abilities and fall back on a more passive style of perception. But it was difficult to be alert every waking hour of the day, so they had their lapses.

Weiss pulls Ruby back to just where the clearing begins, readying her arming blade. The crests adorning her body glow warm; with a simple snap of her fingers, her aura fills her _Myternaster's_ blade with mana, and fires off a blast of cold, unrefined energy at the trap meant for them.

The string itself is a dud; the real trap, obscured by a _Nichterkennung_ (nondetection) ward, is a bed of bloodied wooden spikes that rise from the earth below. The skeletal remains of a most unfortunate band of adventurers, rattle to the ground, having been run through by the trap.

“That’s so cool.” Ruby glows, her wolf ears perking up up. 

“Take this seriously.” Weiss says, pulling out her map of the Forest. “I think we should detour westward for an hour or so. We might be heading into what once was the center of Fey resistance, and I do not want to deal with more traps like these.”

Ruby slips her arm around Weiss’s. “Aww Weissy, you know I’d protect you.”

Though Weiss groans, she leans further into the touch.

Their new path is even more gnarly and overgrown than before; at this pace, they'd have at least ten more hours of walking through this accursed forest. For the next hour, Weiss is tempted to just have Ruby blitz through this terrible thicket, and just outrun most of the traps they stumble upon before they go active.

“Is there a reason you’ve been staring at me for the past ten minutes or so?” Ruby asks, her silvered eyes bright, even amidst the thick mist of the forest. She looked so beautiful, wearing the winter tunic she herself had designed for her. Carrying herself with a sort of pride that hadn’t been there when they’d first met. Almost as if she’d started regarding her own body with a little bit of love.

“Weiss? You’re spacing out again.” Ruby’s words bring her back into reality.

Ruby was far cuter as a lady. Far, far cuter.

Weiss shakes her head. “You’re just really beautiful.”

Ruby wasn’t the type to take compliments easily, but the flush of blood that worked its way up to her cheeks was more than worth all the quirks of Ruby’s personality she had to deal with on a regular basis. “Y-you too, you dork.”

The last day of travel (assuming Weiss’s calculations were correct), through the forest is quiet, for the most part. A brief tryst here and there, with Ruby tearing through the rations they’d brought with them ravenously. She missed food; she’d only the faintest memory of the wonders of gastronomy from when she was just a child, so long ago. Everything that didn’t taste of flesh now tasted like ashes, of metal to her now.

Watching Ruby tear apart her salt pork makes her pang with jealousy, whenever her eating habits hadn't made it an outright repulsive display. Her coagulated blood cubes might taste like have sated her needs mechanically, but she missed the warm, filling meals of her childhood. Blood was amenable enough to the taste buds, yes, but it always left her feeling empty inside, her body’s sanguination system passing the material to her magic circuits to convert into mana.

It would be four hours more until they crossed the threshold out of the torest, give or take fifteen minutes. For Weiss, the act of breathing was less necessary in comparison to her werewolf partner. She'd go hours without breathing, and be perfectly fine; Ruby on the other hand, panted out air like a madman to cool her heat sensitive body down.

  
  
The air was growing thinner; they were finally ascending upwards, towards the Damphothen Mountains. The dirt terrain, marked by overgrown tree roots and cracks in the earth was starting to give way to more rough, petrified land, marked by fissures split apart by tree bark. 

Yet the gloom and the darkness was thickening, each step forward meeting resistance, as before. She reactivates her olfactory senses; the smell of dried blood, reminding her of human despair is brought to mind.

And yet it was still dark. It felt as if everything was growing darker even; she frowns. 

Each step forward meets some sort of resistance, like stepping in black tar. She checks her travel boots alongside Ruby, but finds no sign she's stepped in anything save for dirt.

Something prickles on the back of her neck, alerting her that she isn't there. Ruby clasps her hand tighter, and they stop their march. Looking around, Weiss tries tugging on the magical bonds of the world around her with her aura, but something feels wrong. Her aura slips and convulses, she compares the feeling to a high fever she'd suffered in her early life, and it's as if her aura's being pulled inside something. 

There is a concept that Maguses and Philosophers live by, named _Ousia._ (Why Atlessian academia used Mistralian terminology, was beyond her.) The world is that of substance, perhaps one, perhaps many. To become a magus, was to tap into the cycle of energy that powered the world of substances, to ingrain one’s consciousness from experiencing _Ousia,_ into being an active part of it, drawing power from the world around them, from the body given to them by the Goddesses. 

From the trees, she can feel their shape, the contours of their outlines if she just pulls. Their coarse, rough petrification weathered by years of fire. The delicate lives of the Frost Mirriam struggling to break through the weathered roots. The earthy, musky blossom of lichen around. The wisps of death and decay that haunt the forest whole, each tree bearing a truth, of a world once lived in, now lost to war and empire.

But when she pulls on the world before her, she finds holes, spots on the world where she tugs and feels nothing. It isn’t that she fails to feel anything; it’s that she’s feeling a near absolute _nothingness_ from them that she’s never felt before. And it’s pulling her in.

She readies her arming swords; _Myternaster & Kornblume. _The blades touch; the crest at her throat glows warm and heavy as she channels her mana into her blades. Ruby's claws are drawn; they press their backs into the other's. 

Bladesinging was a performance as delicate and demanding as it was deadly. She'd need to fire off a basic sorcery or a glyph, if she doesn’t want to be ripped to shreds mid-performance. 

A raw, wretched screech erupts from the thicket around them. The enemy’s forms are difficult to see, even with her darkvision. It wasn’t that they were being covered by a _Dunkelheit_ (darkness) ward, more as in they were instances of the darkness itself.

The ground is uneven, torn apart by tree roots and difficult to even stand straight on. She’ll have to settle for a basic dance form if she doesn't want to trip over on the first step. One that doesn’t involve too much moving around.

The crest of her navel, her core glows with heat as she sings the sacred word in her mind, tugging on her magic circuits. _‘Eismesser’._ A single spike of ice conjures, firing off into the shrubbery. Maybe it hits it’s target, maybe it doesn’t. It’s not meant to be a precise weapon.

When she takes her first step, a projectile fired at them flies right past her ear, nearly clipping it off and leaving her eardrum ringing. The ice spike she'd sent off explodes, and her prey reels in agonized screams, shrieking in pain. A second projectile is neatly sidestepped with a simple turn; the upward curve of her arming blade deflects a third, meant for Ruby.

The monsters charge at them; she only has her training and her instincts to rely on, but it’s all muscle memory to her. 

She sings the only song her mother ever taught her before passing; her feet attune to the familiar steps, as a concord of _Psychichewelle_ (Mental Wave) flares out, cutting down the darkness in their path.

_"Nune et in hora mortis"_

And she tries not to think too hard of Ruby, who was very likely awestruck by her talents now. Goddesses know, she’d stumble if she thought about it.

_"Et in hora mortis nostrue"_

* * *

_In the great dining hall, Father’s table hung above all else, almost like a stage at the head of the room. But he rarely attended supper, perhaps once or twice a year. This left Whitley, the new heir to the presumptive Crown of the Throne of Aestia to take his place, Weiss always at his table, his side at the moon’s rising._

_But for today's supper, she and her spouse were completely, utterly alone. Her cooks having been dismissed after preparing their supper for them, with Klein having given Weiss the key to the castle pantry. Which had Atlas’s largest ale cellar by far._

_Needless to say, both Weiss and Ruby were now outrageously drunk. Ruby had never been allowed to taste the ‘liquid courage’ before, that being a privilege in the clan, and Weiss never had the company to enjoy the privies of intoxication. Until now._

_“And so the court illusionist is outraged at me for stealing one of the spell scrolls he’d concocted. Tries getting Whitley’s ear, but that little pisspot wants nothing to do with me, so he doesn’t give a damn. You want to know what the spell scroll was of?”_

_Ruby wasn’t a very imposing girl. She had silvered eyes that would follow you everywhere, but out of a most sincere rapture, rather than out of the necessities of espionage. Her eyes were a tad fearful, but that seemed out of a pained history, if Ruby’s words were anything to go by. Cheerful, optimistic, innocent, Ruby’s eyes seemed to capture all these traits. But Weiss had already seen Ruby’s lows; Ruby was more than capable of melancholy. From what Weiss knew about her so far, Ruby was far from foolish. No, she was idealistic, even when drowning in the depths of despair._

_And she looked so damned gorgeous in that dress of hers. Her prescriptions were also starting to do their work, and with the way Ruby's gown hugged her curves was enough to remind her of the filthy sapphic poetry she'd read in her chambers, away from Father's prying eyes._

_“Was it… indecent illusions of his wife?” Ruby is terribly flushed, now on her third glass of ale._

_“Far better. They were of a Major Image spell. Depicting him and his affair, fucking in the galleria. Completely animate, with sounds, smells, even temperature!”_

_Whether Ruby was flushed further red or not, Weiss couldn’t tell. The conversation was splendid; Ruby’s life hadn’t been very notable, but she was a soft-heart, almost bewildering the politically inclined Weiss. They mostly talked about the ex-heiress, her interests, her life so far, and her wants and whatever stories she had to share. Ruby’s mirth warmed her vampiric soul so much so, that she’d taken to deliberately cutting out the unsavory portions of her story to keep her spouse’s spirits high._

_And Ruby was an avid listener. The way her wolf ears perked up whenever Weiss’s voice raised a pitch higher. The way her tail would wag back and forth whenever Ruby idled. The little touches, whenever Ruby reached across the table to take her hand in hers, upon being caught amidst the adrenaline of a story._

_“You had best believe I used that blackmail to leverage everything I could out of that inane fop.” She gestures to Ruby’s side, conjuring a minor illusion of a still fey, floating amidst the air. Ruby gawks at the display of magic. “What? Have you never seen magic before?”_

_Ruby tries another sip from her glass of ale, but fumbles the drink and pours it all over herself. The ale glistens, hanging from her lips, from her chest exposed from the cut of her top. “Oof, I suppose I can’t drink anymore.” She laughs, only to stumble off her chair._

_“Ruby!” Weiss rushes over to her spouse, nearly stumbling to the floor upon dismissing the illusion. She was on her fourth glass, and most likely as drunk as Ruby was. “Oh my.” She laughs._

_“Sorry Weiss.” Ruby says, resting her head against the floor. “I’m about ready to fall asleep.”_

_Ruby’s chin glistens with alcohol. The sight stirs something obscene in Weiss’s core, a sensation she was well acquainted with. But she’d never felt it this strongly before, not even when it first stirred, when that travelling Elvish minstrell had her dress malfunction at one of Father’s balls, completely exposing her form bare._

_The heat in her core flares, her throat is desperate, and each second she stares at her spouse, she’s electrified. She can’t resist._

_“I want to kiss you.”_

_The words take time to register, but when they do, Ruby’s eyes widen, electrified with heat. Her body quivers, and she nods. Subtly, but still there._

_Weiss’s lips hook Ruby’s in her own. Ruby tastes like ale unsurprisingly, but the heat of her mouth, her rolling tongue pushes Weiss further and further into depravity. Ruby’s lips catch against one of Weiss’s fangs, drawing blood which Weiss eagerly laps up. It’s too little for Weiss to catch more than a passing hint, but Ruby reminds her of pine and that damningly rare cinnamon spice they couldn’t import more of._

_The pressure in her chest and the heat in between her legs is too much. When Ruby groans, moaning against the perverted sensations, Weiss finally snaps. She swoops up her Ruby in her arms, planting mirthful lips against exposed skin on the way to her room. Ruby is delirious, lost, and delightfully ticklish. She struggles against Weiss’s grip, but is far too inebriated to mount an effective resistance._

_It’s when Weiss locks the doors to her chambers and tosses her spouse atop her canopy bed that Ruby realizes what’s happening. “Weiss. Are you okay?”_

_“That’s the question I should be asking you.” Weiss says. The fireplace is conjured with a snap of a finger, the arcane lighting steadily dims until they’re exactly how she’d pictured it when reading the erotica she'd found in the library one day. “Goddess, this certainly wasn’t what I was expecting when I heard I’d be stuck with you.”_

_Ruby frowns, shaken from the moment. “What were you expecting from me?”_

_Weiss presses her lips together, knowing to be careful with her words._

_'Misery.' She thinks to herself. 'Restrictions, someone who would order her around. Not...'_

_"Not a beautiful lady, such as yourself." Weiss whispers, as she tears off the dress she herself designed._

* * *

“Weiss… it smells bad…” Ruby whines, her nude body immersing itself deeper and deeper into the misty hot spring.

“Quit whining.” Weiss says, watching from dry ground, wistful eyes sneaking glances at Ruby’s body. Two and a half weeks, and the herbal and alchemical supplements she’d been giving Ruby had done wonders for her curves. “We took this path so you’d be kept warm by the geothermal springs up the mountains. If it hadn’t been for you, I would have been able to take a much more direct path towards the coast.”

Ruby relaxes into the springs, the fur of her anthropomorphic features soaking through. The scars her body had collected over the years, the wounds collected in her most recent battle glowing pink. “So you’re saying you wouldn’t miss me? Weiss, I’m hurt.”

That familiar warm pink flush returns. “Don’t be silly. Of course I’d miss you.”

“Mmm, I know you’d miss the Ruboobies.”

Weiss snorts, pushing Ruby further down into the water. “Be quiet and bathe. And never say anything like that again, please.”

It was during these moments of quiet dread, these lulls of anticipation that Weiss would be struck with a terrible shyness towards her travelling companion. For each hour they’d traveled together, Weiss had felt hindered, as if she’d been granted an extra arm she didn’t know what to do with. Of course, much of it had to do with the fact that Weiss hadn’t had any experience with travel before.

But that could be chalked off to merely simple inertia from an unfamiliarity with travel. Disorienting yes, but it was at the most, temporary. She’d dreamed of escape from her Father’s castle for years, reading endlessly on the topography and geographic quirks of Solitas. The necessities, know-hows, and little details of travel. The many accounts of wayland adventurers in the Mantillean countryside. 

No, what was keeping Weiss unsteady, off-step, frustrated even, was her travelling companion, Ruby.

It wasn’t that they were prone to disagreement. Perhaps their personalities were strange bedfellows, Weiss could attest to that, but they’d managed to strike up an accord in the few weeks they’d known each other.

Ruby relaxes into the springs, the fur of her anthropomorphic features soaking through. The scars her body had collected over the years glowing pink, and Ruby's arse perfectly visible from the angle in which Weiss was looking at her. “Goddess, it feels so good though. You sure you don’t want to join?”

The sex certainly helped.

_‘No, because we wouldn’t be able to get any work done and would probably end up staying here for an extra thirty.’_

Weiss’s eyes dart away from her arse. “No, because my body doesn’t sweat. So it doesn’t need as much maintenance.” And the fact that they’d probably be distracted with each other and burn an extra thirty minutes on top of it, but she had the dignity to not admit to such perversions. 

The Dampfhothen Mountains made for a rough, but mostly untravelled trail. But as with most risks, came with a great reward. The abundance of hot springs that visitors could enjoy was a result of geothermal activity underneath the earth, from the activities of the Underdark. Occasionally, this resulted in volcanic eruptions whenever a demonic lord broke loose, or whenever the world's natural processes took it's toll, but there was a trade-off to it all. Solitas got some of the best hot springs in all of Remnant, and in exchange, was destroyed every couple of centuries with immense losses for the people of Solitas. Trade-offs. 

The mountain trails weren’t terribly gnarled by weathering and erosion, and the harsher climate at their altitude would make tracking them a far more difficult task. The range would take them all the way to the Moonsea in the midst of the mountain range if they followed the path for another hundred or so hours. And once they’d made it past the Moonsea, they’d come across the first alpine settlements, made possible by the Atlessian trading networks that had yet to penetrate the Northern Dampfhothen Range.

Curious, Weiss dips a finger into the searing hot water. The weather had been dusky and overcast since they’d left. A blessing from the Goddesses, perhaps. The water is a near boil, but the around is still wistfully freezing. 

In an example of her perceptions lapsing, she hadn't noticed Ruby had submerged herself underneath the water, surfacing only to drag Weiss in.

Running water was dangerous for her, but the hot springs were perfectly fine for her. Save for the fact she was now soaked through, alongside her clothes. There wasn't anything dangerous about this, given her lack of needing body heat. It just pissed her off.

“Ruby! Ugh! You… got my tunic wet!” Grumbling, she strips off her layers, just grateful her armor and weapons hadn't been pulled in. 

“Sorry.” Ruby grins, drinking in the sight of Weiss in her soaked through basic layers. Ruby's gaze is lecherous, embarrassing Weiss and reminding her that she's still clothed, while Ruby isn't. Grinning, she slowly strips off the rest of her layers, doing her best to make a show of it all for her now entranced companion. As a final coup de grace, she collects her clothes, stepping out of the hot springs to set them aside the fireplace for drying, making sure to be extra slow with it all, topping off with a spur-of-the-moment cannonball that nearly lands on top of a squealing Ruby.

"I missed this." Ruby sighs. Goddesses knows how much time they'd just spent making out, fondling each other.

"It's barely been twenty-five hours since we last had sex." Weiss says.

"Good to know then that you don't want it too often. Thanks Weiss." Ruby smiles, earning herself a splash of water. 

"I'm still tense." Weiss admits. Her thoughts were turning sour. They were wasting time with each other while Father could be tracking them right this moment-

"Weiss." Ruby nestles into Weiss's neck for a wet cuddle. Weiss sneers, before her thoughts reestablish themselves. 

"Weiss..." Ruby sighs, clearly dissapointed. "I know when you've got stuff on your mind. Please Weiss, if it's about your dad tracking us, then... yeah, we really should take this more seriously. But overstressing about this sorta stuff won't help, you know?"

Weiss, half-present, nods. "Yeah."

"And besides. If your dad were to catch us, I'd want it to be here. Right here, right now, while I'm knuckle deep inside of you."

Weiss snorts, flushing red as she pushes Ruby away. "Ruby!"

Ruby chortles, doggy paddling back towards her. "Sorry, sorry. Couldn't resist." She tilts her head. "But seriously, Weiss. You can tell me anything. Please?”

_‘Not everything, Ruby. Not everything.’_

Weiss looks over to her pleading puppy-dog eyes that always made her heart weak in all the ways Ruby would use to get concessions out of her. Tepidly, she nods; Ruby would never use that look to extract anything Weiss didn't want extracted, they'd vocalized that early in their relationship. It was just that Weiss could be incredibly stubborn about the emotions she wanted to release out at times, and needed a little extra provocation in order to get them out proper.

“I planned our route.” Weiss says, shaking her head. “I’ve memorized the fauna we should encounter, each path’s history of banditry and outlaw activity, the damned topography. So why can’t I comprehend whatever it is we just fought!?”

Ruby tilts her head at the question. “You mean the Darkspawn?”

“Darkspawn?” Weiss turns her head, wanting for answers.

“Darkspawn, Grimm, there’s a lot of names for them. They sometimes raided our hunting fields once every few months. Always took a good chunk of us with them whenever they did.”

“And Atlas never raised a hand to do anything about it?”

Ruby shakes her head, leaning into the crook of her neck. “You’ve never been outside your castle unsupervised until now. So don’t blame yourself for not knowing Weiss.”

Not blame herself? Then what else could she do? Stand uselessly as others who labored for her comforts suffered needlessly?

She tries not to outright stare when Ruby’s chest rises above the surface of the water. “Tell me what life was like for your kind, under the protection of the House of Schnee.”

“Our clan had some land to ourselves, but assigned to us by your Father’s handlers. We usually had around two-thousand acres near one of your Lord’s castles, all to ourselves. But it was all mostly open tundra for hunting. And if one of us tried to leave the tribal grounds without permission, we’d be killed. I’ve never experienced the joys of travel, of discovery before.”

“Restriction of movement and knowledge.” Weiss smiles, in a sort of depraved admiration. “Keep your allies unknowing, and they won’t be able to question your demands.”

“What did your father want from our kind anyway?” Ruby asks. “Our lives were meager in the clan. What could we have to offer that made a political marriage between us so important?”

She’s reminded of her wolf ears, now soaked through and weighed down by water. Her tail, right above her perfectly rounded arse, wagging back and forth in the water, occasionally splashing her. “Warriors, meat, and labor. The men of your tribe provide us with suitable manpower, and the meat that your tribe raises and slaughters is given to House Schnee as tribute for the Atlesian armies. And Father uses those your tribal elders select as chattel. Indentured servants, to labor alongside the other lesser races.” 

She slips an arm around Ruby's waist, earning a pleasured sigh from the werewolf girl. She was right, goddesses, the pool had been lovely. Ruby's back was arching into her touches, but her silvered eyes held a steady, loving gaze. Lost in thought, but concentrated as if in the midst of judging something. Her arms were just lightly toned, and for that matter, so was the rest of her body. 

“You’re not responsible Weiss.”

“And what would I be responsible for?” Weiss says.

“Nothing. But you have that look on you whenever you’re wracked with guilt and I can tell it’s eating you on the inside.”

She’d learned in her time with Ruby, that being around her meant not having any emotions you could hide to the world. Almost the exact opposite of what Weiss had desired in a partner, an ally. Before, she was always certain of what she’d felt, but Ruby had a way of turning her emotions the other way around and she didn’t understand why. Why she felt like she never had privacy in her presence.

Why she always felt it, when Ruby was near. Why she always felt this way around her, when she’d never felt it before. Alive. Breathing. Living.

Ruby’s eyes are wet. It takes time for Weiss to notice that it isn’t just the bathwater dripping down her cheeks. And she remembers the first time she saw Ruby cry. 

She never wanted to see Ruby cry. Much less make her.

Weiss coughs, looking back at her, and not darting her sight away for once. Ruby grins at her, that foolish grin that always made her warmer whenever she’d catch sight of it. Weiss’s body betrays her, and she lets out a breathy laugh, laughing at how nice it was to be around Ruby. How nice it was, would be, to have Ruby against her.

A wandering hand slips underneath that tail of hers. Wedging straight for that mark of Ruby's femininity, her perfectly placed pucker, eating Ruby's depraved sighs up when she presses against the soft, delicate flesh.

"Fuck... Weiss..."

Ruby was right. If Father were to discover them, she'd want it to be here. With the two of them completely nude, Weiss knuckle deep inside of Ruby.

"You want me... to put more inside?" Weiss breathes, biting harshly against Ruby's neck, earning a pleasured yelp that falters off into a moan.

"Weiss... more..."

They had time.

* * *

_Ruby’s first glyphs are terrible. Teaching a girl who's never even touched magic until this point in her life is one thing (and has rarely ever been achieved), teaching an illiterate girl like Ruby exacerbates her problems to the point of hilarity. She can barely even draw the basic conduit shapes needed, needed Weiss to locate what few magical circuits her body possessed, and shows no such ability to form an aura of any sort._

_And the disappointment on Ruby’s face hurts to see, so Weiss has made a point of straying from eye contact._

_The date before the eve of their wedding day, Ruby had meekly requested Weiss tutor her in magics. Whether such a thing was even possible, Weiss hadn’t been sure. All persons had Magic Circuits which could conduct Prana, transforming it into Mana. But only those with certain ‘auras,’ could tap into this wellspring of power. Feminine auras._

_None of her texts had specified anything about birth, only femininity. So it stood to reason Ruby could very well wield magic. But they hadn’t yet any results to support this theory._

_“How does it feel when you use magic?” Ruby asks, out of breath from hours of repetitive motions. These were very basic glyphs motions designed to invoke emotions regarding the effects of a glyph. Sort of a magic onomatopoeia of sorts._

_Weiss presses her index finger against her ring; flicks it akin to a tinderbox, casting a mote of Licht, illuminating the room. It was all muscle memory to her, but most students made at least some progress on a single basic cantrip by day’s end._

_“You’re starting at an especially old age Ruby.” Weiss says, offering a hand to Ruby’s tensed, sweating back. “Take a break for today, we can continue to-”_

_Tomorrow. Then and there, Ruby would meet Father. And together, they would have to explain to him the nuances and idea of gender._

_Ruby looks at her, with naked, unhappy eyes. Neither of them wanted to address the matter, it seemed. Best to think of positive things. Anything but that._

_“We will continue Ruby. I will have you a magic caster by the week’s end.”_

_“Fine.” Ruby sighs._

_Weiss stops her before she can storm off to be alone. “Weiss, I’m fine-”_

_“Ruby.”_

_Ruby’s eyes close in frustration; when they open, they’re wet, holding back emotions Weiss was all too familiar with. “Ruby, you’re not fine. Talk to me.”_

_Ruby scoffs. “I’m the one who isn’t fine? You’re the one who isn’t fine. Weiss, please. You’re holding something in.”_

_"I'm holding something in? I think from your little outburst here that you're the one holding something in-"_

_Weiss flinches when Ruby glares at her, only to wistfully dart away her gaze in remorse. "Why are you trying so much for me?" She spits out. "I can clearly tell you don't want to be wed to me."_

_Weiss presses her lips together, but she can't lie. The words leave her mouth before she has a chance to think it through. "You're right. I don't. I never want to be married, Ruby. Not now, and quite possibly not ever.”_

_"Fine." Ruby says. "I can understand that. Fine."_

_"You're clearly not fine."_

_"I-" Ruby stops herself, sweat starting to soak through on her gown. "It's stupid."_

_"Ruby, please. Talk to me."_

_"And I don't know why you're still being so nice to me Weiss!" When Weiss tilts her head at her, Ruby sighs, her eyes wet. She'd made her cry again. "Why in the stars are you being so nice to me, when you know I'm not a real girl!"_

_"What!?" She takes her by the shoulders. "Ruby you absolute fool, I will say this as many times as I need to in order to get it through your thick skull. Your femininity is yours, no matter what. You are a girl, because you feel like it, and live by it."_

_"When I was little, I tried telling the elders how I felt and they all just laughed at me."_

_Weiss gently guides her towards a nearby seat, setting her down and rubbing circles on her back. "I'm so sorry Ruby. But none of the fools in academia or in our lives can ever take this away from us. Ruby, I... I like you, damn it. And I... I should have phrased my words better damn it. It's not that you're unmarriageable, it's that... Father. I don't want you to meet him. And it's not because I'm ashamed of you damn it."_

_"I'm being selfish." Ruby sobs._

_"No, you're not."_

_"I don’t know why I feel like this. The moment you came into my life, I felt lost. I was so sure of everything Ruby, but then you came in and now I don’t know what to do anymore. And perhaps this is foolish to admit, but I like you Ruby. Deeply and terribly, you make me feel in ways I’d never thought possible. That I’d only thought to be possible in the realm of erotica.” Her eyes dart back up. “And now I’ve made you cry, because I was selfish with my feelings. I’m a selfish being Ruby, so I’ll stop.”_

_Ruby’s eyes were terribly wet. “I never wanted you to feel this way.” She starts another thought, but the words fade off, fearful. Instead, she closes back in for another embrace, holding her tight. Trying not to let go, as they cried together._

_Even tears of sorrow felt better with Ruby. Everything felt better with Ruby._

_"I'm just so scared you're lying." Ruby says._

_"I know I can't ever fix the way you feel about this." Weiss sobs, into Ruby's shoulder. Goddesses, their makeup must have looked terrible by now. "But I'm always here to listen. You're all I have left Ruby, I couldn't... I couldn't bear the thought of hurting you."_

_The stare Ruby gives her seems so far off, barely even there. "I'm... this is obvious, but I can never bear children." Ruby's shoulders tremble, and Weiss wasn't sure whether she was crying or laughing. "It's so stupid, isn't it? I'd prefer to be with a lady, but I don't think I could ever bear the thought of letting my wife give birth. I'd die inside from jealousy."_

_Ruby rubs her eyes with the back of her hand; a single sentence comes so dreadfully close to spilling out. One of her most personal secrets, that she'd sworn never to tell anybody._

_"Weiss?"_

_She swallows. "I'm infertile."_


	3. Silver Snowdrop III

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CW: Implied Sex, Nudity, Gender Dysphoria, Body Dysmorphia, Discussions of Motherhood.

The Great Northern Circuit is a mountain trail carving through the Damphothen mountain range. Sculpted roughly, the path juts to and fro, weaving through tightly cut ridges, with bridges hanging right above a great number of uncharted vales. Here, the roads themselves are intact, they themselves a work of Dwarven and Elven engineering, from a time when the dwarves lived above the Earth, before burrowing their forges underneath the mountains below. From a time when the center of Solitas was atop the summit of the Damphothens, before elven decadence and political conservatism fell to a more dynamic, more multicultural rule more willing to resort to cruelty, war, and exploitation when need be. 

Still, they needed to be cautious here. The Old Church of Solitas was no friend to the Atlessian Empire, but that had only ensured Father's watchful eye upon them, instead of waving off all undue scrutiny. Traffic alongside the northern half of the circuit was near nonexistent, given the lack of... anything to be visited while up here, and the weather had been very good to them, mild for the most part. Few hours of sunlight during the day where Weiss would be forced to retreat into a little roadside bivouac until that interminable light was gone.

This would all change once they reached the Moonsea; there, they'd encounter civilization, and with it, their chances of detection would spike. Doubl so once Father had realized they'd fled through the Forest of the Ice Spirits.

So they'd gotten bored, and decided to just haul it across this part of the circuit, Ruby blitzing it all the way through.

“We should rest now.” Weiss says in Ruby’s ear, as they dash down the side of a foothill. They couldn't waste the gift of good weather here; heavens knew what storm they'd be caught in on the next day. 

Ruby huffs in understanding, coughing up a fit as her pace comes to a drawl. The magic of transmutation, powered by the blood of a lycanthrope wafts, smokes off her body as a blackish musk as she transmutes back into her humanoid form.

Weiss already has her tunic at hand; offering it to the nude girl and trying not to flush fervently at the sight. “Here. Put this on, and quickly. After I’m done scouting, I’ll set up a fire for an hour or two.”

“Aww Weissy.” Ruby pouts, taking the garments. “You sure you don’t like seeing me like this?” Weiss attempts to object to such… lurid provocations, only to choke on her own words when Ruby drops the clothes, and performs for her vampire companion a nude handstand. 

“You… are a tease, Ruby.” Flushing furiously, she briefly fondles Ruby's bared sex, before kissing her navel and letting Ruby fall over. “And a klutz. And-”

Whatever words she’d wanted to say now would fall on deaf ears; Ruby was out cold. A lycanthrope’s energy came to them in bursts. Ruby might have been capable of great feats of strength and speed, but once her stamina was depleted, she went out like a light and needed hours to rest. 

So she dresses her. Reluctantly, but a nude Ruby would burn more energy trying to keep warm, and they’d worn through half of Ruby’s rations already. Ruby’s breaths had shortened, the cold taking its toll on her, so she’d lit another fire, and wrapped her in their furs.

Weiss played as lookout, briefly contemplating hunting for food, before deciding against it. Someone needed to watch over Ruby, and she hadn't the faintest clue regarding how to properly dress a kill. So she makes herself busy, preparing Ruby's feminizing potions, and preparing ten strips of salt pork for Ruby, eating up around two for herself, raw. Unsurprisingly, salty, a flavor Ruby had started desperately craving since she'd started the feminization therapy. Strange.

Ruby had slept for a grand total of five hours, until she'd stirred with a great, deep yawn at the smell of salt pork roast. Weiss steals a third slice of raw salt pork, unexpectedly needing of fuel.

“Go back to sleep.” Weiss says, chewing on the fatty meat, relishing every savory note it put off.

Ruby snorts at the sound of Weiss eating. "M'hungry."

So they eat. Ruby devours her food, Weiss watching. Trying to make small talk that goes nowhere.

“We have time. Please go back to sleep.” Weiss says, when Ruby finishes her meal, and tries leaving her little bivouac. She polishes her blade, instinctively looking at her nonexistent reflection. Some habits seemed to never wear off with time.

“I’m tired.” Ruby admits. “And weary, and the soles of my feet are all shredded out and they’re going to hurt like the Goddess’s wrath in a week or so. But I have a duty, and that duty is getting you safe, away from your father.”

“We have time. And you need to care for yourself.” Weiss lies again. Leaning over, she tries to tuck the belligerent Ruby back in, to some degree of success. Ruby’s eyes were worn, bloodshot, and half-focused. 

“No, we don’t, and I’m not the one who’s important-”

A sharp glare from Weiss shuts her up. “Do not. Say that to me ever again, you dolt. I don’t think you understand. I’m not protecting you for your own good Ruby. I want to protect you, because I _need_ to.”

“I… explain that again?”

Weiss sighs. “You wouldn’t understand Ruby. How long do you think I’d been planning to leave? An entire decade, I’d studied everything I could about the possible routes I could take, including this one. How to traverse difficult terrain and weather, how to interact with mortals. And then you come in with your ridiculous smile and your unfair curves, you treat me like I’m an actual person, and then you win my heart.”

She stops for a moment, blinking back icy black tears. Ruby hand takes hers’, caressing it gently. “Now? I have an actual reason to survive, other than just simply getting away from Father and do you know how it feels? It feels exhilarating. Intoxicating, like an adrenaline rush that I can’t get out of my head every time I close my eyes. Ruby, stars. I need you. Right now, to give me hope, and if I lost you… I would never forgive myself.”

“Would you feel the same way once we’ve away from Atlas?” Ruby says. Her eyes were heavy with sympathy, if not exhaustion. Her arms were inviting; her chest, warm.

Ruby opens the blanket for Weiss, who slides in, meekly. She’d never thought of life beyond Atlas beyond escape.

“I don’t know Ruby. I don’t know.”

Ruby’s embrace is warm, but doesn’t treat her like broken glass. Tepid, she slowly folds into the cuddle, realizing halfway that Ruby’s state of dress is far more improper than hers.

“You’re free now.” The sweat from her own body heat glisten down’s Ruby’s bare breasts.

“Life was a prison.” Weiss says, trying not to stare. Her mind wanders back home. “I almost never had power, save for the power over those who Father deemed less than waste. When I realized just how powerless I was, when I tried to get a mistreated servant’s contract shortened ten years ago, that’s when my desire for freedom became insatiable. I can’t… I can’t bear feeling powerless, and I hate that everything about me has been built out of something terrible.”

“Weiss, you’re not terrible-”

“Don’t just hold me in your arms and lie for me Ruby. You saw how wealthy and comfortable my life was. While people like you had to suffer for the good of the people of Atlas. I can’t stand not doing anything except pitying myself Ruby, please. Tell me more.”

“Tell you what?”

“Tell me more about what life was like for you, in the clan. If you’re comfortable. Please.”

Ruby’s ears flatten, half in thought. “I don’t remember much.”

“Then tell me please. What you do remember?” Weiss asks, tilting her head at her.

Their eyes catch on the other’s. Ruby sighs, presumably out of capitulation. “From as long as I remember, life inside our lands was for most of us, wracked with hunger, wanting for food. And until I was about ten, life inside the lot of us was lively, but crowded.”

Ruby laughs, her eyes darting away. “For me, it was lively in all the wrong ways.”

“How so?” Weiss asks, her voice soft, gentle.

Ruby shakes her head. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

She has a very good guess as to what ‘it’ is. Gender roles in Northern lycanthrope societies were very rigid, since their sworn fealty to Atlas, and subsequent modernization efforts. From that, it was no surprise someone like Ruby would have ended up at it’s fringes. Friendless, and without empathy sent towards them.

"Your fur." Weiss's hand gently rests on her ear, nuzzling the soft fuzz. "It's beautiful."

"Thank you."

"But it's dark grey. Northern lycanthropes typically have a pale grey, or even white complexion. Were you a refugee?"

Ruby's response is hollow, without enthusiasm. "I don't know. I don't remember much, please Weiss. I don't wish to talk about it."

“I’m sorry for asking.” Weiss says, gently rubbing away a stray tear. But Ruby’s already fallen back asleep. All she can hope for now, is that her dreams will be gentler to her.

Weiss considers breaking off from the embrace, and resuming watch. But truthfully, she was feeling tired as well, emotionally. Their little campsite was covered well enough by the mountain, protecting them from being spotted by Father’s flying machines. And she’d set up _Alarm_ wards around the perimeter for several meters out in case anything approached. She had time. They had time.

And Ruby was so warm.

Gentle, so as to not wake Ruby up, she strips off the rest of her clothes, joining Ruby in a skin-to-skin embrace. Trying not to sigh when she feels Ruby’s sex press up her intimates.

  
  


Before Ruby’s heat can cloud her judgement, she turns off her consciousness, and lets herself fall asleep.

And for the second time in her life, her dreams aren’t outright nightmares. 

* * *

_There are four carvings on her body that would mark her forever, give her strength, yet chain her to her Father's will as long as she remained in Atlas. One, in the shape of the Songstress Terpsichore, Songstress of dance and vocals, upon her throat. Another, in the shape of the Lion of the First King of Buhmend, between her breasts. One, in the seal of the Goddess Freyja, dotting the small of her back. Another one, carved in the shape of the cross of Sankt Edith, marking the right calf. And the final one, carved around her navel, in the shape of the Eagle of the Knights of Atlas._

_"I’m infertile.” Weiss says, having guided Ruby to her chambers so she could properly undress. The words spill from her lips like wretched bile, the mana powering her body snapping sharply cold._

_Ruby nods, but her eyes dart around, processing her words. A hand is raised, Ruby covering her mouth. “You’re…”_

_Weiss’s fingers take Ruby’s for in her own. Ruby trembles at the touch, until Weiss guides Ruby to the intricate carvings that would mark her forever. Ruby had seen them before, but having been completely and utterly clueless regarding all things within the realm of magic, she'd had no idea what exactly these were until now._

_“I've... always wanted tattoos before.” Ruby grins, nervously. "I mean, they look super freaking cool-"_

_She smiles at her jest, the mood melancholy still. “They’re crests. Remember that only women can bear magic Ruby. And a crest, only inheritable by the daughters of a bloodline, is a gift of family, passed down through birth, granting the offspring the entire sum of her lineage’s knowledge. And once they are passed down to the beholder, it renders the sorceress infertile, as all magic does."_

_It was if Ruby was barely even touching her skin. “And you have four.”_

_Weiss nods, gently guiding Ruby’s fingers to lightly grope at the markings at her chest. “The crest of the Crown of Bumenhd.” She gently guides them downward, against her navel. “The crest of the Crown of Hastarvia.” Ruby’s fingers are dragged back, to her sides. Gesturing to her back. “The crest of the Crown of Aestia.” Unstraddling Ruby for space, she then gestures to her right calf. “The crest of the Confederation of the Sonderbund.” Finally, the crest on her throat. “The crest of the Kingdom of Bergreich.” Together, this body represents the Atlessian Empire._

_“This body of mine… is more than just a magical conduit, it is a vessel for my Father’s control over Atlas. In Atlessian society, sorcery and magic are prohibited by most women, unlike in Vale and Vacuo. Here in Atlas, daughters who bear crests are instead used to symbolize her family's stewardship over a realm. And my father, through sheer political will alone, brought the five most powerful families of Mantle together, imprisoning and extracting all the crests of their daughters, and implanting them onto me."_

_"Wait." Ruby says. "If crests make you infertile, then how..."_

_"Two ways. Upon death, a sorceress or crest-bearer will grant a close kin, or any suitable relatives for that matter, their mark. This mark must be confirmed through a ritual ceremony known as the Transmutation of the Mind, one of the Holy Trinity, upon the mark bearer. The second, being through force. Through sheer ingenuity on the part of his physicians and doctors, Father had the crests of the five main daughters of the Holy Empire of Solitas grafted onto me. Legitimizing his rule over Solitas, and declaring the Holy Empire of Atlas in it's stead." Weiss laughs, letting out a wretched sob. "I'm an absolute abomination of science Ruby."_

_Ruby nods, clearly unsure what to make of all of this. She'd done it now, she'd scared off the only one who'd ever liked her for what she was, besides Klein._

_Ruby had now seen what a freakish abomination she was. Unable to have children, her life a product of her Father's science and political machinations-_

_"You're not a freak Weiss." She hadn't noticed the two arms hugging her, embracing her. She hadn't noticed the wetness on her cheeks, now pooling at Ruby's shoulder. "And for what it's worth, your tattoos are really fucking cool."_

_Weiss snorts. "Ruby, take this seriously-"_

_"I am!" Ruby pulls her tighter. "Weiss, you're not... what your Father made you into, even if it's an absolute shite situation he put you in. And you're not something made up out of science."_

_Weiss shakes her head in protest. "But I'm-"_

_"If you're an abomination of science, then I'm... I'm a freakish she-"_

_Weiss pushes her off, into the canopy of the bed. "Don't you dare say that Ruby. Don't you dare... insult my work." She says, struggling to find her words._

_"If I'm insulting your work, then you're insulting my judgement!" Ruby stands, outright sobbing. It's when she's realized she's made Ruby cry again, that she finally snaps out of her self-deprecating train of thought._

_They hold each other for another hour or so, quietly mumbling out apologies, holding onto the other desperately. The fireplace unlit, Ruby begins to shiver, so Weiss wraps her arms around her to try and keep her warm._

_"Promise me you'll never say anything stupid like that again, and I'll never call myself a freak again." Ruby manages, before quietly drifting off into sleep._

_Weiss didn't need much sleep. But the last thing she remembers, before drifting off into a peaceful sleep alongside Ruby, is herself, whispering in agreement._

_And for the first time in her life, her dreams aren’t outright nightmares._

* * *

Nestled in the midst of the Northern Damphothen Mountains, was a great formation of ice, underneath the spurs of the summit of the Archangel Auri-El's. The Glacier of the Crescent Moon stretched up to half the summit's height, and underneath the ice formation, was a lake where the waters reflected the starry night skies, the realm of the heavens above. The Moonsea.

Naturally, Ruby's first instinct was to strip off bare and swim, taking Weiss with her in spite of her protests.

"Ruby you dolt!" Weiss laughs, stripping off as well. "You're going to freeze-!"

Weiss's words go unheeded, as Ruby dives into the water, taking the squealing Weiss right alongside her.

"Welcome to the lake pa-Oh My Goddesses it is Cold!" Ruby squeals, body locking up in the cold waters.

Weiss, mostly immune to the cold, splashes her in the face, laughing at her misfortune.

Ruby huffs at her, seemingly warm again out of sheer spite. She glances over to a nearby wooden dock, which looked like it hadn't seen use in decades. "Race you to that thingy over there?" 

Weiss rolls her eyes. "Oh, no. You're getting back onto dry land before you freeze-"

Ruby's eyes narrow, as she launches herself towards the docks for a head start. "See you Weiss!"

"Ruby!" Weiss calls, scrambling to catch up. She'd never learned how to swim, in part of not needing to know how to really. Her body could survive without circulation for days on end, her body only needing the air as pressure to power the remainder of her sanguination system.

She can hear Ruby laugh, taunting her at the victory point while she's still midway through their 'track,' wading through the neck high waters with a deeply irritated look on her face. Rolling her eyes, she receives Ruby with a splash of water when she catches up.

"Aww. Sore loser Weiss?"

Weiss spits back a collected spurt of water at her, before climbing up the docks, using the woodwork as a makeshift ladder. She can feel Ruby's lecherous gaze as she manages her way up. 

"Ruby, get out of the water. You're going to freeze." She offers a hand to lift her out of the water, no self-gratifying looks attached.

Ruby sighs, but was beginning to visibly shiver in the waters. They'd have to set up a fire and eat a good chunk of their rations to warm up. 

Ruby's eyes aren't looking at her hand. Instead, she's drinking in the sight of Weiss, absolutely dripping wet (not in that way, Goddess), completely nude and extending a limb out to her. She knows where this is going when she notices the lecherous grin form.

"Oh, no. You are not-"

In an absolute betrayal, Ruby takes Weiss hand, pulling her back into the lake water with a loud splash. She can see Ruby's shit-eating grin from underneath the water, and furiously splashes her with all her fury once she resurfaces. "I will destroy you." She growls, earning a not-so-innocent squeal from Ruby.

"Weiss... I'm still cold." Ruby pecks her on the lips, tasting like crystalline lake water.

Weiss's arms grab hold onto Ruby before she can properly flee, pulling her back into waist-high water. "Then how about I warm you up?" She growls into Ruby's ear. One hand fondles her sex; the other hand pushes Ruby down so she can straddle her. 

Ruby moans, depravedly, openly. "Is this how it's going to be?" Ruby breathes, her grin wicked and mischievous as Weiss suckles a bare teat. "Us, f-fucking at every major landmark wherever we go?"

"Goddess, I'd hope so." Weiss growls, biting harshly at the sensitive flesh, dragging out a heated yelp from Ruby. "Travelling would be terribly boring if it weren't so."

The campfire they'd set up later was warm. Their bodies together was warmer, and they really needed to put some clothes back on before they up and jumped each other again. Eventually, they tired, and Weiss had decided to care for the now shivering Ruby by dressing the nicks and damage Ruby's poor feet had taken. Somehow, the conversation had turned back towards life back in the tribe. Ruby had insisted it was okay. That she'd wanted to stand with Weiss, not behind her.

"The older boys usually took up hunting, and some of those would take up arms under your name when they grew of age. But there was never enough food to go around, and one day, the elders told us that we were to convert our lands to pastures. That’s when the clan began to divide, spread out across Solitas.”

“I was one of the few that stayed near your castle.” Ruby says, wincing as Weiss dresses the nicks and wounds her poor feet had taken. Ruby's hands were tending to the boil hanging just above the fire, the Sapphic Roots just beginning to emulsify. It gives off a scent akin to charred glass, salty pickled beets. “Some of us went into logging as a craft, and since raising pastures took less of us versus hunting and gathering, more of the men took up arms. Anyone left was drafted straight into your factories like I was. Until I messed up an entire batch of textiles and was sent straight back home to the elder council for judgement. They didn’t know what to do with me, until your name was up for marriage.”

A mirthful smile forms between Ruby’s lips. “And now we’re here. We found each other, and now we’re besties.”

“Besties?” The calloused soles of Ruby’s feet make Weiss distinctly self-aware of her own, pedicured and soft. It reminds her of her upbringing, that she’s never had to perform physical labor of any sort. 

“Yeah, besties. We talk. We... hang out a lot.” Ruby snorts, her eyes darting away, embarrassed. “We do… intimate things with each other. And you’re pretty much my only friend, so yeah, I guess you have no choice but to be my bestie, but still! I really like… what we are, Weiss.”

_‘Do you want to be more?’ Weiss wants to ask._

Weiss kisses her instead, fangs lightly dragging on the soft flesh of Ruby’s lips. “You make me feel warm.”

“Mmm, I know I can make you feel warmer-”

“Not, what I meant you dolt.” Weiss says, pulling out a pumice stone from her bag. “As much as I wish we could… resume our activities, we’re running out of time.”

Ruby’s foot tenses as the pumice stone carves her soaked callouses, wet from her unbelievable body temperature melting the snow underneath her feet. “Hey! You’re… going to town on my feet, huh?”

Weiss scoffs, briefly pecking at her big toe. “Perhaps I have a fetish. More likely, I’d like to take care of you once we’re free. My feet have long been kept immaculate by my daily routine. And I would love to do the same thing for you.”

Ruby tenses, hearing the word ‘love.’ “Oh. Uhm, thank you.”

“Don’t feel embarrassed Ruby.”

“I’m not. It’s just… I’ve never had someone take care of me this… intimately.”

The heat inside Weiss’s core, the one Ruby always knew how to tug on, flares back up. Hot. Burning her whole. 

"Never before?" Weiss asks, almost as a whisper.

Ruby shakes her head. "No. Never made friends who I could give hugs. Or cuddles to."

She sets down the pumice stone, her arms reaching out around her, surrounding her. "You're wonderful Ruby..."

Ruby wipes away a sob. "Y-yeah. You k-know we're still mostly naked right?"

"Did you think I wasn't aware of that?" Weiss hadn't meant for it to lead back here, she really didn't. But when Ruby’s cheeks flare up, hot and pink, she remembers. She remembers how much she needs to make her feel how Ruby always makes her feel.

They could spare another ten minutes or so, the consequences be damned.

  
  
And an a couple of hours, they were finally spent (hopefully), lying together in embrace. Wide awake, (well, not Ruby), staring at the great void above, now obscured by weather on account of being so high up. She'd given up on counting the hours until they'd escape Atlas; the time they constantly wasted fucking made these calculations impossible to qualify and quantify.

Ruby eventually stirs, though without the sleep Weiss had wanted of her. Her sleep deprivation had always left her ragged and weary. She sinks further into their little bivouac, mumbling out a string of curses as she reaches out for the burning campfire. Blood dripping on the hunk of meat held by a _Schweben_ glyph above the fire. The way each drop sizzled as it hit the flames was oddly calming. 

“Don’t you vampires need to rest?” Ruby eventually asks. An untold amount of time having past. 

Gentle fingers stroke her fuzzy ears; they twitch at Weiss’s touch. “Yes, but only forty-eight hours a month. And we always fall victim to nightmares.”

“Ah, so you have it in lieu of-”

“My ability to bear children? Yes.” Weiss says, mirthfully.

Ruby’s ears wince. “Apologies.”

“No need. I’d never wanted children.”

Her tail perks up. “I always did.”

Gentle fingers caress her soft ears. It was something which had quickly become one of Weiss’s favorite things to do with Ruby. Cuddling skin-to-skin, in each other’s embrace. Ruby reduced to soft purrs whenever she was in her arms. “I’m sorry.”

Ruby leans further into her touches, absently looking at the meat. Weiss watches her, content to just be. 

"Do you mind if I ask a personal question?" She asks, a knot welling up inside her core.

"Weiss, we've been inside of each other for more times than I can count in the past few weeks. Sincerely, please just ask."

Weiss snorts, Ruby nuzzling a soft cheek against her bared shoulder. "When we escape Atlas. Where will that take _us_?”

“Wherever the ship-” Ruby purses her lips, frowning in quiet understanding. “Ah.”

“Before. I only wanted to escape. But now Ruby? With you, I feel… ashamed, disgraced, confused, frustrated, and I don’t know anymore.” She laughs. Ruby’s eyes don’t flinch at her words, even for the briefest of moments. “I realized. I was directionless, before I met you, and… as selfish as this is for me to ask of you, I want you beside me.”

When Ruby doesn’t respond, her heart pangs with a deep longing, desperate for any answer. 

Ruby gets up; Weiss’s eyes follow her as she picks up a bundle of wood, and tends to the campfire. When she finally addresses her, she’s at Ruby’s mercy.

“Weiss, you fool.” Ruby’s mirth escapes her, and she leans in to take her lips.

Warm. Loving. Alive. “W-what?” Weiss says, when she releases her.

“I’m an illiterate werewolf girl who’s never made friends in her clan or been outside the tribal lands until now. Where exactly would I go, but in your direction?” She reaches forward, wiping away a tear that had escaped Weiss’s eyes. “I feel the same way Weiss, and… I’ve just never felt this way before and this is all so new. But I like you. Maybe even the bigger one, but I’m really not ready to say something like that. But right now, right here, I want to be with you. I’ll give myself to you however you’ll take me.”

“But I don’t know where that would lead.” 

“I don’t know either.” Ruby laughs. “Perhaps these feelings are foolish and immature. And perhaps we’re not ready for these emotions. But right now, when it really matters? I trust you, more than anything else in the world Weiss.”

* * *

_When they came to, they realized it was the final night, before the eve of their wedding. They'd have to spend all day with Father tomorrow, desperately trying to survive whatever he'd bring onto them. So they'd spend the rest of the night with each other’s bodies. Lost with each other with nothing but lust to guide them, desperate touches against wanting skin. Happy to drink in the other’s sounds, they’d made each other warm._

_Tonight was the night she’d been planning to take off, but she couldn’t leave. Not yet._

_“I’m leaving Ruby. And I want you to come with me.”_

_Ruby’s ears vaguely perk up; she was still exhausted by the night’s trysts. “Why?” She asks._

_“I...I’ve been planning escape for years Ruby. Memorizing topographies, routes, the details and features of each town along the path, I had plans Ruby. And then… you came.”_

_“You… don’t want to stay here with me?” Ruby stares, coldly. Weiss’s thin sheets sliding off her nude form._

_“No, I want you to come with me.” Weiss says. She’d numbed her body prior with sadness, fully anticipating rejection for Ruby’s answer. “I know this is all terribly short notice. But I couldn’t gauge how you would respond. But I won’t be bound to Father’s wishes, as… against expectations my time with you was. Ruby, I… hope you’ll at the very least consider, as… whatever we are.”_

_Ruby’s answer is immediate; pulling her in with a tug at Weiss’s pale armored tunic, and taking her lips into her own. It’s terrifyingly, intoxicatingly warm, and they moan into their embrace._

_“Stars Weiss.” Ruby laughs, as she breaks off the kiss for air. “I was also going to ask you to run away with me tonight, but I got nervous.”_

_Weiss’s preparations had already been modified to accommodate a Lycanthrope’s needs. Gathering the supplies was merely a matter of two hours. They would leave at sunrise in the world exterior, for a blizzard was predicted to stir by then, covering their tracks, protecting them from the sun._

_One last act before they would leave. A glass of wine, lips desperate against the other’s. Full of mirth, they’d have one final tryst where they’d first met. Celebrating that for the first time in their lives, they’d found someone of one accord with them._

* * *

The day after they'd taken off from the Moonsea and they’d finally encountered the first signs that they weren’t alone, regarding humanoids. Arrows, ingrained in a tree alongside their path. Perhaps from conflict, perhaps from hunting game; all of Solitas suffered from snowfall, burying most evidence to the naked eye.

They were nearing the mountain city of Ludendorff, a mining city nestled at the very end of the active portion of the Great Northern Range. Other humanoids would become a regular part of their adventures from now on. Ruby had changed out of her werewolf form in order not to arouse immediate conflict upon sight. 

“And when they ask who you are, you’ll answer that you’re my thrall. While we are in town for but a brief hour, you’ll have to be perfectly obedient to my every command. Understood?”

Ruby yawns, terribly exhausted from their little trek.

“We are absolutely doomed.” The mirth from her lips betrays Weiss though, as she lets out a laugh, amused at Ruby’s state. Gently pressing against the small of her back.

“Mmm tired.” Ruby manages, taking Weiss’s fingers in hers.

Weiss flushes warm, pulling at her grip. “Ruby, someone might see.”

Ruby pouts, but acquiesces. “You don’t want anyone to see?”

“I want to be somewhere where we can be… seen, without being judged.”

Ruby lets out an attentive groan. “How are you not tired?”

“How am I not tired, how are you not excited!? This will be my first time exploring a city outside of Atlas Ruby. The Free City of Ludendorff is one of the most important cities in all of Atlas! It's both host to some of the largest mines and most beautiful hot springs in all of Remnant, and it lies at the crossroads of the Nord and the Sachs trails, on top of being a center of trade for the Norden Mountain region, and the Empire in general!”

Ruby’s lips peck Weiss’s cold cheek. “You’re so cute, all excited like this.”

“Oh quiet you.” She means to playfully push her away, but Ruby falls over in the snow, exhausted and all. “Ruby!?”

“Tired.” Ruby snorts. “You sure we can’t rent a room for another hour?”

“Ruby…” 

Their little moment together ends, when two comets streak across the night sky. For a moment, it’s as if they’re the only two in existence to play witness to this display of the heavens above.

“Make a wish Weiss.” Ruby says, sticking a tongue out at her.

“What?” Weiss smirks, looking at her questioningly. She loved Ruby's stories, she really did.

“It’s an old fable from back in the clan. You see a miracle of the heavens, you make a wish.”

“Oh, and what would you wish for?”

“Sleep.” 

At that answer, Weiss laughs. Hopefully they would sleep soon. Proper sleeping would require them to be safe, and she supposes by extension, Ruby wishing for sleep is her wishing for their safety. It seems like such an innocent, yet warm wish.

But with Ruby? Such an interpretation felt redundant. It was a stroke of irony; Ruby was the first person in her life to make her so unsure of herself. But working together, she felt that nothing could go awry; and she questions whether she’s really felt sure of herself up until this point.

So she won’t wish for their safety. Because she knows they’ll make it, through the struggles ahead. 

Now Ruby? Ruby was a wish, for certain.

  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter: Blake's POV. Expect it before the end of feb.

**Author's Note:**

> did you like it? pls leave a kudos or a comment below for my self-validation, ty


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